Dionne, Reilly once again lead R.I. natives at Boston Marathon

Cumberland native Hilary Dionne shattered her personal best by nearly 4 ˝ minutes, en route to finishing 23rd overall among the women and eighth among the Americans with a time of 2:35:08.

“I was lucky enough to be working with Sarah Cummings, who is from New York and who I’ve run with a few times before in training,” said the 28-year-old, who now makes her home in Charlestown, Mass. and competes for the Boston Athletic Association Running Club. “So we worked together almost the whole time. We both had the same p.r. going into this and both ran just around 2:35, so that helped a lot to not be alone. That was my goal. I think both years I’ve ended up alone for at least half of the race or more, so this year I put myself in a pack and we went out a little faster than I would have intended, but if I hadn’t tried to stick with them, I would have had the race I did.”

Jason Reilly, a classmate of Dionne’s at Cumberland High School in the 2000s and also a member of the B.A.A., was hoping to dip under 2:37 in his fourth attempt at Boston. He came up a bit short in that respect, clocking a time of 2:38:07. But given the circumstances of the day, he was quite happy with his performance.

“The community, everyone getting together, it was almost like everybody was running as one,” said Reilly, once again the top R.I. male finisher, placing 263rd overall. “Everybody was out there to do their best, and it really showed. A very emotional day. A lot of hard work was put into today. It was a great day to be out here.”